.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Four Skulls is a memento mori for the Pop generation, a lurid and colorful adaptation of an Old Master motif. Warhol's skulls, in their uniformity, provide a counterpoint to the infinite variety of Warhol's many faces of celebrity. Four Skulls implies that, underneath, we are all equal, death the great leveler. As he himself said, making an ironic comment on the process of decomposition that will affect us all, "Death can really make you look like a star" (A. Warhol quoted in G. Celant, Andy Warhol. A Factory, exh. cat., Bilbao, 2000, n.p.).
The homogeneity of the skull as a symbol of any person's death must have appealed to the artist. Indeed, Warhol often professed his adoration for the sameness of the modern world:
"The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald's.
The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald's.
The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald's.
Peking and Moscow don't have anything beautiful yet."
(A. Warhol quoted in K. Honnef, Andy Warhol. 1928-1987. Commerce into Art, Cologne 2000, p. 73).
Warhol's general aesthetic involved an adoration of the availability of the high points of culture and celebrity, the fact that what had been veiled and mysterious for previous generations was now accessible for all. This was the case with celebrity, with art, with consumer goods everything was a little bit closer to the consumer. In a similar vein, he claimed that he loved the United States because everyone drinks Coca-Cola, from the president to the stars to the workers. Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Death are all facets of the same prosaic diamond.
The homogeneity of the skull as a symbol of any person's death must have appealed to the artist. Indeed, Warhol often professed his adoration for the sameness of the modern world:
"The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald's.
The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald's.
The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald's.
Peking and Moscow don't have anything beautiful yet."
(A. Warhol quoted in K. Honnef, Andy Warhol. 1928-1987. Commerce into Art, Cologne 2000, p. 73).
Warhol's general aesthetic involved an adoration of the availability of the high points of culture and celebrity, the fact that what had been veiled and mysterious for previous generations was now accessible for all. This was the case with celebrity, with art, with consumer goods everything was a little bit closer to the consumer. In a similar vein, he claimed that he loved the United States because everyone drinks Coca-Cola, from the president to the stars to the workers. Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Death are all facets of the same prosaic diamond.